Knowledge & News

We prayed this prayer together last Sunday night. It was introduced with an invitation to "pray along, listen along, or simply to ignore in silence", and remain in the moment of silence observed, leading into the prayer. The assumption was that even the "pray along" would be engaged silently. But an overwhelmingly powerful moment occurred when, by the second refrain of the prayer, many voices joined audibly in the plea,

"Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers."

Many of these voices come from places of uncertainty, distrust, and even overt doubt and skepticism regarding the religious connotations of the one referred to and prayed to as "lord", and yet the human ache for mercy in the face of natural disaster, in the face of Baltimore and the breakdown of human society and civilization, and in the face of debate at the level of the highest courts in our land about what rights belong to all persons... the ache overcame the doubt, the distrust and skepticism. We were united in the human desire that transcends dogmatic division. There are forces at work in this world beyond our control, and those we might control but know not how... and here we find ourselves. Vulnerable. Helpless. Clinging to a hope we're not even sure we have. And so, like so many before us, we pray.

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal, the thousands dead, the families, friends, lovers and legacies they leave behind...

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.

For the loss of the sacred sites, the temples, the icons and holy places of other traditions, religions and faiths, grasping with us for the absolute, seeking with us the divine mystery, touching with us the ground of love and being...

Lord in your mercy hear our prayers.

In the wake of darkness and destruction, in the presence of systems and powers beyond our control that threaten to tear at the fabric of goodness, to undo the wholeness and oneness of all things, and to compromise the very life and breath which sustain our humanity -

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.

In our shared suffering of each and every crisis, loss, and tremor of less than the fullness of our being - in the shadows of insecurity, fear and hatred, injustice, inhumanity and inconsolable grief.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayers.

As we mourn with the mourning, weep the weeping, a muster the tears for those with no tears left to shed, we long for impossible hope, hope against hope, as we strain against the darkness to see anything, to make any sense, to believe anything about a God who can be good, and yet this… straining to see a flicker of light, a glimmer of promise…

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We value highly the metaphor of journey. We’re different people from different places and backgrounds, representing an intergenerational community, and we’ve traveled different paths. So, we agree not to make assumptions about the person across from us, next to us, or in conversation with us. We challenge ourselves to be sensitive, knowing this community includes a diverse group of people from life-long followers of Jesus, to people who are just now open to the idea that God might exist. We strive to avoid offense, ask good questions, articulate and explain our responses. We don’t assume fluency in bible, spirituality, or Church language, because we believe the message of Jesus is not for Christianity, but for humanity. So, we do everything in the spirit of love and grace.

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